MONSTROUS CEPHALOPODS. 13 



things in various parts of the garden to entice them by food 

 more savoury to their taste, or to lure them to destruction by 

 affording deceptive places of shelter. The most destructive 

 species in this country are the grey and black slugs and the 

 garden snail (Helix aspersa, Fig. I, a); in Provence and Lan- 

 guedoc, the Bulimus decollatus takes the lead ;* in the wine 

 countries, Helix pomatia and several others of the same 

 genus destroy the vine when it puts forth its tender buds 

 and first leaves, and hence the keepers anxiously gather and 

 tread them under foot ; " this," says Swammerdam, " I have 

 seen transacted as a work of great consequence in France :"f 

 and even from New South Wales we hear complaints of a 

 small species of slug, which absolutely destroys some of the 

 gardens. J The farmer finds them a still more serious pest. 

 In wet seasons, the slug propagates with such rapidity, that 

 a wheat crop, after a green crop of clover, tares, or beans, is 

 very uncertain, according to Mr. Sinclair, " and may be said 

 always to fail." You cannot look over the agricultural re- 

 ports in our newspapers, without seeing frequent notices of 

 the ravages of these apparently insignificant creatures ; and 

 the damage they annually do to corn, clover, and turnips, is 

 really very great. Topical remedies are here of little use ; 

 the numbers of the host, and the extent of their field, their 

 tenacity of life and mode of concealment render such means 

 nugatory, or at least of very partial benefit, as almost every 

 farmer will assure you.§ 



Had you a spark of the amiable credulousness of our fore- 

 fathers ; or were you one of those accommodating good- 

 natured people who, like the brother in a tale of Mr. Crabbe's, 



are ever 



" ready wonders to receive, 

 Prone to assent and willing to believe," 



this would be my place to speak of " things that are rather 

 wonderful than true," — of a cuttle " in the ocean of Gades, 

 between Portugal and Andalusia," which, like a mighty great 

 tree, spread abroad its arms " that in regard thereof onely, it 

 is thought verily it never entred into the streights or narrow 

 sea thereby of Gibraltar :" of another with a head as large as 

 a hogshead, and with arms thirty feet long, furnished with 

 cups like great basons, capable of holding four or five gallons 

 apiece, and which, being over fond of salt fish, used to ven- 



* Encycl. Meth. i. 326. 



t Book of Nature, 49. 



j Cunningham New S. Wales, i.328. 



§ Holdich on the Weeds of Agriculture, 75 — 77. 



